In the Code Garden
Come join me in the Code Garden, where we’re working on growing our coding skills!
This month in the Code Garden, Renee is joined by guest co-host Amanda Hogan. A former Microsoftie, turned high school tech teacher, Amanda knows her way around tech, as well as helping her students showcase their dev creations!
This month we show you how to create a portfolio using GitHub pages, to easily showcase your work! Come along and we'll show you how to get started and set up your basic portfolio structure in Episode 1 and make it go live with GitHub pages! Then in episode 2 we'll teach you how to give your portfolio substance and style, and give you some tips on some dos and don'ts of what to put into your portfolio site!
During December in the Code Garden we’ve got 2 holiday themed series coming up!
Advent of Code Garden (3 episodes)
This month in the Code Garden, we take on the holiday themed programming challenge, Advent of Code (https://adventofcode.com/) !
Join the sessions to see us use Python to work through problems from the different days of the seasonal competition. Learn our tips and tricks to for getting started, for writing code that will churn out answers fast, and for setting yourself up for success as the competition goes on.
Come along to practice your Python, algorithmic programming, or pick up skills that come in handy come your next technical programming job interview!
Episode 1: Get started with Advent of Code - Problems 1-5
Episode 2: Get speedy with Advent of Code - Problems 6-8
Episode 3: Get fancy with Advent of Code - A peek at Problems 9-11
Code Garden Holiday Special - Making magic with micro:bits
On this holiday special episode of In the Code Garden, we'll be taking a look at exciting holiday projects, for adults and kids, alike as we create fun holiday decorations using MakeCode and the BBC micro:bit.
Come along to see how you can use LEDs, buttons, and radio signals to create a fun display for a holiday of your choice! Turn what you learn into a fun family or school project with tips from our Co-Host, Helen Kardiosmenos, who will share her experiences as a primary school tech educator.
Advent of Code Garden
Brush up on Python for Advent of Code with our Cloud Skills Challenge!
In Episode 1: we'll tackle the first 5 problems. We'll provide tips and tricks for how to ease into Advent of Code with these four problems using Python and VS Code, with particularly helpful tips for first time Advent of Coders.
In Episode 2: we'll take a look at problems 6-8 of Advent of Code, as the competition difficulty starts to ramp up. We'll talk about some algorithmic essentials that it would be great to learn at this stage of the competition, and about other concepts like multi-dimensional lists, dictionaries, and classes that will become important as the competition goes on.
In Episode 3 we'll take a look discuss some of our methodologies we use when tackling the later, growingly complex problems, in Advent of code.
We'll give you some insight into our favourite hacks in solving problems 9-11, that will hopefully set you up for success for the rest of the competition.
Previous Months’ Repositories
About Me - Renee Noble
I am the Regional Cloud Advocate for Sydney, and am passionate about technology, education, community, and bringing them all together.
I’m a self-proclaimed "Jane of all trades", and have worked in government doing ML and Python backend, full-stack and content creation in the ed-tech start-up sector, and I dabble with embedded tech. I’m a keen women in tech advocate, and spend my spare time leading the Girls' Programming Network to support women and girls to realise their potential as techies. I also started a business to help bring exciting coding opportunities to kids and teachers. I love making tech an accessible challenge for everyone!
Beside teaching and tech I loves swing dancing, cats, and having a ridiculous number of plants.
November Episode - Open Code Garden
Workshop style Python Practice, and guided explanations of Microsoft Learn Modules.
Early Session
Late Session
Session 1:
Practicing Python with Ciphers
In the first Open Code Garden of the Month, I’m working through the first coding module in our Microsoft Learn module, using Python for cipher cracking!
October Episode -
Bring your GitHub profile into full bloom with a Custom Profile
Early Show
Late Show
This month we show you how you don't need to settle for the default when it comes to your GitHub profile. Renee and Amanda will take you through how to use a custom GitHub profile, use markdown for fast profile edits, and show off their favourite components to help showcase your GitHub highlights!
September Episodes -
Grow your career opportunities with a GitHub pages portfolio
Early Show
Late Show
Episode 1:
First steps to creating a portfolio site with GitHub pages
In episode 1 we'll cover the basics of how to get your portfolio site set up and make it go live with GitHub pages!
Will give you the steps you need to get from getting start with GitHub, to portfolio structure, to making it go live!
More Resources
Early Show
Late Show
Episode 2:
Bring style and substance to your GitHub pages portfolio
We'll take our basic website from episode 1 and focus on making it stand out, by giving you tips on the content to include, and how to make it stand out from the crowd with HTML and CSS skills.
August Episodes - Building and Deploying Web Servers
Episode 1:
Grow a seedling website - with Python Flask
In this episode we'll go through how to get started with Python Flask to make a simple website. I'll talk about when you need a webserver and why (compared to July's static web page series), and give you the Flask tools you need to create routes, and design HTML templates. You'll also get an understanding of GET requests, and how to process and use information in them when serving back webpages.
Episode 2:
Plant your site in the web - with Azure Apps Service
In episode 2 of the series we'll take the Python Flask webserver we built in episode 1 and deploy that to the web with GitHub and Azure Apps Service. See how to set up your site to auto-deploy, and even add a custom domain to it!
Episode 3:
Home grown APIs - serve more than sites with Python Flask
In episode 3 we'll use Python Flask for more than serving websites, we'll serve our own APIs too. Come see how you can make useful services for your team or the world, using POST requests to make a webserver that can do more than just return HTML.
June Episodes - Front-End Web Development Basics
Episode 1:
Sow your first front-end web development seeds
HTML, CSS & deploying static GitHub Pages sites
In this episode we'll look at what exactly "front-end" web development is and what you can do with it (without having a backend at all!). See how the browser turn some essential HTML and CSS into a webpage you can see, and deploy then that to the internet with GitHub Pages.
Episode 2:
Gardening with structure & flair -
Using HTML for structure & layout, & CSS for interactivity
In this episode learn more about HTML tags that can be used for grouping and structuring, alongside CSS. Then add interactive elements to your site with CSS hover and other interactive elements.
Episode 3:
The living web-garden -
Using JavaScript to bring your website to life
In this episode we'll learn how JavaScript interacts with our webpage to bring functionality to our site. See how you can trigger scripts with button clicks and more, and save website state with cookies 🍪.
June Episodes- Data Science and Visualisation with Python and Matplotlib
Exploring in a Forest of Data - Working with data in Python
In this episode we'll learn the essential tools of working with large amounts of data, using Python to read files, like CSVs of environmental data.
We'll learn how to read and write files, utilise Pandas and NumPy to work with our data easily, and use Python libraries to find the statistics hidden in a forest of data.
Viewing Data peaks & valleys - Visualising data with Python & Matplotlib
In this episode we'll show off how to generate graphs using Python and Matplotlib, to show off patterns and trends in data.
We'll cover a variety of different types of 2D plots, how to format your data and labels to generate the graphs you want, and how to customise your plots to suit your needs.
Digging Below the Surface -
3D graphing & combining visualisations in Matplotlib
In this episode we'll cover more complex way you can use Matplotlib to reveal information through data and visualisations.
We'll cover how to create 3D graphs, and how to combine different kinds of graphs to draw correlations between different bits of data.
May Episodes - Python Data Structures
Links for practise!
Grow your Data Storage Skills Using Lists & Tuples in Python
In this episode we'll take our first steps into data structures, using lists and tuples to store many pieces of data together.
We'll cover how to create lists and tuples, and what the difference is! And you'll learn how to edit and manipulate your lists, and get the info you need out of your data structures.
Coding in the Secret Garden Discovering Sets
In this episode we'll delve into the under appreciate, and very useful data structure: the Python Set.
We'll take a look at how using sets to store unique items opens up a whole range of functionality for you, helping to easily identify overlaps and difference between groups of data.
Planting Pairs
The Power of Dictionaries
In this episode we'll cover Renee's favourite data structure, the Python Dictionary.
She'll take you through how using dictionaries to store key-value pairs will make working with related pieces of data a breeze, and will let you solve many more problems both easily and with code that runs efficiently.
April Episodes - Introduction to Python
Plant your First Python Seeds
Working with variables & input
In this episode we'll handle the very basics of Python (which can be the biggest hurdle to getting coding).
We'll be taking a look at how to store different types of data, like strings and integers using variables. We'll also learn how to ask for information from the user and then explore a few ways to display it.
Branching Out
Using if statements in Python
In this episode we'll cover how to make decisions (branching) in Python using if statements.
We'll take a look at how you can use conditions in your programs to generate different outcomes based on what data the users enters.
The Circle of Life
Using loops in Python
In this episode we'll cover how to use loops to make your code repeat in Python.
We'll take a look at how for loops can be used to have part of our code run a particular number of times, or for each letter in a word the user enters.